La Plata girls soccer clips McDonough on late Parr goal
Junior scores late second-half goal to lift Warriors over McDonough
Leading up to Tuesday night’s Southern Maryland Athletic Conference Potomac Division girls soccer contest versus visiting McDonough, La Plata’s Mia Parr was eager to find the net at any point of the game and several of her teammates wanted to see her do it as well.
With the score tied at 1 and less than three minutes remaining in regulation, the junior forward saw that wish come true, delivering a game-winning goal with a shot in the right corner of the net on a cross from freshman for ward Kristen Ging, lifting La Plata to the eventual 2-1 victory over the Rams.
“I wanted to score that goal really bad,” said Parr, who notched her fourth goal of the season. “Kristen played it right to me from the corner and it was just wide open. It was a good goal.”
La Plata (6-2, 2-0 SMAC Potomac), which won its fifth straight game, handed McDonough (5-3, 1-1) its first division loss of the season.
The Warriors also have allowed just two goals during the five-game win streak and has just one loss on the season to a SMAC opponents, coming in a 4-3 overtime game against Calvert on Sept.5 in the season opener.
“Mia has been working hard on her finishing and she was at the right place at the right time,” La Plata head coach Kevin Barry said. “It was nice to get one at the end of the game tonight because it was a battle tonight. “It wasn’t our best played game, McDonough dictated the pace, but this team has been on the right side of some close games. We are motivated right now.”
Six minutes into the game, McDonough was the first to set the tone as senior midfielder Elizabeth Saoud delivered a cross over to junior forward Peyton Carney, who finished with a shot in the back of the net for the first goal of the game.
Fifteen seconds later, La Plata knotted the game at 1 after junior forward Julia Simpson nailed a high arcing free kick from 30 yards out over the head of Rams sophomore goalkeeper Marisa Gibbs (11 saves).
“The last two years I’ve scored on a free kick against this team [McDonough],” said Simpson, who scored her fifth goal of the season. “When
I got the ball, I was like here we go and I just did my thing. Before the game we were talking about Mia scoring a goal and she got her goal. And what better way to have a game-winning goal.”
The Warriors were scheduled for another division matchup at North Point on the road on Thursday, then slated to host Lackey at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
“[McDonough] has always been a big game for us the past three years and this season we knew they wanted to come out and beat us,” said La Plata midfielder Mackenzie DePriest-Kessler, who had two goals and five assists through Wednesday. “And I think that got in our heads and we were ready to play and tonight we worked well as a team.”
Like La Plata, the Rams had several opportunities on the offensive end, but weren’t able to capitalize throughout the game.
“I am very proud of the effort that our girls played with this evening,” said McDonough head coach Dave Bradshaw, whose team is scheduled to take on host Leonardtown in a nondivision contest at 6 tonight. “They are leaving it all on the field and that is all you can ask for as a coach. We have a great deal of respect for La Plata, it was a hard fought game on both sides of the field. Dealing with adversity will reveal great strengths within our players, as we move forward toward reaching our goals.”
La Plata junior goalkeeper Carley Hebb finished with 10 saves in the game. all of the roots and the hills and the rocks. The rocks definitely got the best of me coming out of the woods and I [fell and] got my knees pretty good.”
Leonardtown’s Emily Imhof (eighth, 20:59.9) and Rachel Geiger (ninth, 21:24.6), Northern’s Kaitlyn Delamer (10th, 21:25.1) and North Point’s Mya Rivenburg (11th, 21:43.9) rounded out the top-11.
“I’ve been having some hip pain, it’s been really tight, so I was happy to come back this week,” said Rivenburg, who was one of four Eagles to sit out last week’s race in an attempt to keep their legs fresh. “I really like this course because of all the woods; it keeps everything serene and relaxed. I don’t like running in circles so that one part where it goes around was kind of rough, but when I got back in the woods and started opening up my stride that really helped.”
The Eagles (6-4) managed a 15-43 win against La Plata.
Alexis Collins was the top runner for the Warriors (3-7) when she placed 36th in 25:43.4.
The roles were reversed on the boys side as Northern’s Greg Oldham won the race in 16:32.4, but the Raiders placed three runners in the top-5 to sweep the meet.
“I just went out as a reasonable pace and tried to keep it as long as I could,” Oldham said, “and when there was no one behind me I slowed down a little and kept my pace.”
The Raiders (10-1) swept Northern, La Plata and North Point to move a win up on the Patriots with one race remaining.
Final boys scores were unavailable at press time.
“We’re very proud of them because a few of them really had to fight hard in this meet,” Fallon said. “And there were some surprises as well so we were pleased to see some of the younger kids step up.”
“I was definitely looking forward to it and we just wanted to keep the train rolling and we definitely wanted to beat Northern because that would prove we were still pretty competitive,” said Leonardtown senior Parker McDowell, who placed second in 16:54.6. “We were eye-balling this meet and hats off to them, they put up a good fight.”
McDowell added: “I was planning on going out with Greg, but he went out and killed the first mile, so after that point I just wanted to settle in and stride out. I really wanted to focus on relaxing because the last few races I’ve had a problem tensing up.”
Northern (9-2) earned two wins on the day and the Eagles took one.
“I thought my guys placed better than I thought they would and ran very well,” Dawson said. “I’m very happy with all of the times and the packs are getting tighter.”
Leonardtown’s Sean O’Roark (third, 17:31.1), North Point’s Josh Doughty (fourth, time unavailable), Leonardtown’s Matthew Kosten (fifth, 17:38.7) and Northern’s Jack Lehnhardt (sixth, 17:39.5) rounded out the top six.
North Point’s Ray Stevenson (seventh, 17:54.7) and La Plata’s Ethan Kane (eighth, 18:01.4) each led their respective teams.
“I think I ran pretty well today,” said Kane, who was coming off a sprained ankle. “I started at a pretty fast pace and kept it up until the end.”
“[My] strategy was just get up the hills as far as possible and try and keep my pace throughout the whole race,” said North Point’s Logan Handwork, who was ninth in 18:18.9, “and at the end just pick it up and finish.”
The Warriors (4-6) have just 28 total runners.
“We had a lot of PRs and we’re trying to build the program so they did well today,” La Plata head coach John Childers said of both teams. “Right now we’re not at a place where we can beat a lot of these teams. We’re at a place where we can try and build the program and get them faster each week and we are.”
North Point (5-5) squared its record at .500.
“We’re young, everyone’s banged up and running against two great teams,” North Point head coach Jimmy Ball said. “I’m very thrilled where we are now.”